US asks Cuba to release Alan Gross

"The Cuban government should release Alan Gross and return him to his family where he belongs," White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told reporters.

"Tomorrow Alan Gross will begin his fourth year of unjustified imprisonment in Cuba. He was arrested on December 3, 2009, and later given a 15-year prison sentence by Cuban authorities for simply facilitating communications between Cuba's Jewish community and the rest of the world," he said.

"The President has followed (Alan) Mr Gross's case with concern, and he urges Mr Gross's release," Carney said.

"We continue to ask the Cuban government to grant Alan Gross's request to travel to the United States to visit his 90-year-old mother, Evelyn Gross, who is gravely ill. This is a humanitarian issue," he said in response to a question.

"We continue to press the Cuban government to release him